02 — Framework · Framework

SP1

zkVM (RISC-V)

In one paragraph

SP1: zkVM (RISC-V). Kind: zkVM (RISC-V). Arithmetisation / backend: Multilinear / sumcheck + wrapper. Setup: Wrapper only. Maintained by: Succinct. Licence: MIT / Apache-2.0. Status: Production; deepest assurance evidence. Choose it when: Proving large existing Rust codebases — state transitions, consensus and EVM verification, bridges — where on-chain cost matters and published assurance evidence is a selection criterion.

Kind
zkVM (RISC-V)
Arithmetisation / backend
Multilinear / sumcheck + wrapper
Setup
Wrapper only
Maintained by
Succinct
Licence
MIT / Apache-2.0
Status
Production; deepest assurance evidence
Selection matrix · see the row in context

What it is

A RISC-V zkVM proving execution of programs compiled from Rust. The current generation uses a multilinear proof system with sumcheck-based arguments; final proofs are wrapped in Groth16 or PLONK for on-chain verification.

Strengths and tradeoffs

Strengths
  • One of the two most substantial public formal-verification efforts among zkVMs, with core chip constraints verified against the official ISA specification
  • Documented, concrete on-chain proof sizes and gas costs for both wrapper options
  • Mainnet-deployed, with published security analysis and disclosed findings
Tradeoffs
  • Formal verification is scoped, not total: a specification-conformance bug was later found by conformance tests outside the verification effort's scope. Treat 'formally verified' as bounded by its stated hypotheses
  • Unwrapped proofs are large; reaching on-chain size requires recursion plus a wrapper
  • The Groth16 wrapper inherits a trusted setup — see §04

Choose it whenProving large existing Rust codebases — state transitions, consensus and EVM verification, bridges — where on-chain cost matters and published assurance evidence is a selection criterion.

Sources cited on this page · 5

  1. SP1 — RISC-V zkVMproject
  2. SP1 on-chain verification — Solidity verifier and wrapper optionsdocumentation
  3. sp1-contracts — deployed verifier gateways and addresses per chainproject
  4. SP1 security model — wrapper trusted setup provenancedocumentation
  5. On formal verification and a bug in SP1 Hypercube (EF zkEVM)analysis
Cite this page
MarketComp (2026). SP1. The ZK Field Manual (Version 1.3). MarketComp. https://zkpick.com/frameworks/sp1/
@misc{zkfieldmanual-sp1,
  title        = {SP1 — The ZK Field Manual},
  author       = {MarketComp},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {1.3},
  howpublished = {\url{https://zkpick.com/frameworks/sp1/}},
  note         = {Accessed: YYYY-MM-DD}
}